Hammett news page A short biography The Continental Op Blood Money Red Harvest The Dain Curse The Maltese Falcon: The novel The movie The 75th anniversary The Glass Key The Thin Man Woman in the Dark The short story collections The novels in one volume Books about Hammett Interview with Hammett authority George J. "Rhino" Thompson Chronology of Hammett's fiction Hammett's army days "Dashiell Hammett Place" Hammett's Post Street apartment: A photo tour (2005) Declared a landmark (2005) The Flood Building Links to other Hammett sites Contact Mike mikehumbert.com homepage This site is dedicated to all the people like Don Herron, Bill Arney, Richard Layman, William F. Nolan, Josephine Hammett Marshall, Julie M. Rivett, Steven Marcus, Joe Gores and others who have kept 1920s San Francisco in the here and now. Special thanks to Vince Emery for his many helpful contributions to this website. Entire website copyright 2003, 2004 & 2005 by Mike Humbert.

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THE MALTESE  FALCON

PART ONE:  HAMMETT'S NOVEL

Who shot Miles Archer?  It doesn’t really matter.  The characters and dialogue in The Maltese Falcon are so vivid that this question is ignored throughout most of the story.  The novel's atmosphere is dense as a San Francisco fog, and its descriptions of locations are so accurate that many can been pinpointed on a map (Don Herron’s Hammett Tour visits many of these sites in person). Falcon debuted in serial form in five issues of Black Mask, between September 1929 and January 1930.  The hardback edition became available in February 1930. Sam Spade, like the Continental Op, was a San Francisco private detective.  Unlike the Op, he didn’t work for a big agency; he also lacked the Op’s hard-and-fast ethical code. For a great deal of the story, it’s hard to tell which side he’s on. Although Hammett never managed to write the "serious mainstream novels" that he had hoped to, many consider The Maltese Falcon to be a classic in its own right.

Shown here is a shopping bag from Barnes and Noble. Here we see Hammett's Falcon sharing space with immortal works by Steinbeck, Faulkner, Fitzgerald and other giants - exactly the company in which Hammett hoped he would be remembered, although not necessarily for his detective novels.

SAMPLES OF VARIOUS EDITIONS

1) Knopf, 1930 (hardback with dust jacket.  The later Grosset & Dunlap version is very similar) 2) Modern Library, 1934 (hardback with dust jacket) 3) Modern Library, 1934 (hardback with dust jacket. Rare alternate version)

4) Pocket, 1945 (paperback.  This is the actual cover.  And... 5) is the sexied-up dust jacket.  Yes, it’s a paperback with a dust jacket!) 6) Knopf, 1945 (hardback with dust jacket. Black Widow Thriller edition) 7) Zephyr, 1945 (hardback with dust jacket)

8) Pan, 1951 (paperback) 9) Panther, 1957 (paperback) 10) Perma, 1957 (paperback, reusing the Pocket artwork from 1945) 11) Perma, 1961 (paperback)

12) Penguin, 1963 (paperback) 13) Dell, 1966 (paperback) 14) Penguin, 1966 (paperback) 15) Vintage, 1972 (paperback)

16) Pan, 1975 (paperback) 17) Book Club Associates, 1977 (hardback with dust jacket) 18) Pan, 1977 (paperback) 19) North Point Press, 1984 (hardback with dust jacket)

20) Inner Circle, 1985 21) Franklin Mystery, 1987 (hardback) 22) Vintage Crime, 1989 (trade paperback) 23) Vintage Crime/Black Lizard, 1992 (trade paperback)

24) Folio Society, 2000 (hardback with sleeve) 25) Amereon, 2000 (hardback without dust jacket) 26) Impress, 2001 (hardback without dust jacket) 27) Thorndike, 2001 (large print)

28) Orion, 2002 (trade paperback) 29) Vintage Crime/Black Lizard, 2004 (trade paperback) 30) Orion, 2005 (trade paperback)

AS PART OF A TEN VOLUME SET

In 1957, The Maltese Falcon was included in a hardcover set of mysteries that also featured Raymond Chandler’s The Big Sleep and  John Buchan’s The 39 Steps. The spines were always red with gold lettering, but the color of the covers varied in some sets.

NON-ENGLISH EDITIONS

1) Norwegian 2) Turkish 3) Hebrew

4) German 5) Russian

AUDIO EDITIONS

1) Books on Tape, unabriged, read by Michael Pritchard, 1980 2) Cassette Book Company, abridged, read by Daniel Chodos, 1982 3) Audiobooks, abridged, read by Tony Roberts, 1985

3) Isis, unabridged, read by William Dufris, 1997 4) Audio Partners, unabridged, read by William Dufris, 2004

A BOX FOR YOUR FIRST EDITION FALCON

For the serious collector, a company is currently offering custom-made sleeves designed to fit the Knopf first edition of Falcon.  The cost?  Upwards of one hundred dollars...

"TO JOSE"

Over the years, there has been some confusion about The Maltese Falcon's dedication. Even Michael Pritchard, who voiced the Books on Tape version of the novel (and should have known better) mistakenly assumed "Jose" was a hispanic man, and pronounced it "Ho-ZAY." In reality, "Jose" (pronounced "Joe's" or "JO-see," depending who you ask) was Josephine Dolan Hammett, the author's wife.  Sadly, by the time Falcon was released in hardback, the Hammetts had separated.

A MALTESE FALCON MAP

PART TWO:  THE FALCON ON FILM click here to continue!